For many years agricultural balers have been used to consolidate and package crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. Usually, a mower-conditioner cuts and conditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. When the cut crop material is properly dried, a baler, for example a round baler, travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it into cylindrically-shaped round bales. When the bale has reached a desired size and/or density, a wrapping system wraps the bale to ensure that the bale maintains its shape and density. For example, a net may be used to wrap the bale of crop material. A cutting or severing mechanism may be used to cut the net once the bale has been wrapped. The wrapped bale may be ejected from the baler and onto the ground by raising a tailgate of the baler. The tailgate is then closed and the cycle repeated as necessary and desired to manage the field of cut crop material.
It is desirable to decrease the amount of time involved in the bale ejection process by efficiently controlling the sequence of raising and then lowering the tailgate for the ejection of the bale. It is also desired to have a semi-automatic bale ejection process that relies partially on an operator and partially on a baler control system, thus decreasing operator fatigue in the baling process. This document describes a semi-automatic sequence for the safe and efficient ejection of a bale.